THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

2.3 Dobles and Duplos: Latin American Perspectives The Avatar in PanamaThis narrative change from indicative to subjunctive mood castsdoubt on whether the fantastic events are actually occurring or whetherthey are being played out in his mind as wish fulfilment. The end of thisparagraph clarifies that what has been described, has just taken place:“como ahora, porque la brisa adivinó mis deseos y se hizo viento queha duplicado cada uno de mis anhelos”. The final paragraph mergesthe first and third person inferring the observer’s integration with theevents just occurred.Not only do the mannequins appear animated but of coursethey are usually found behind glass like Horacio’s dolls in their displaycabinets. Glass, however, appears in various forms apart from shopwindows; it recurs as a picture frame or window pane (vidrio,escaparates, cristales, vidrieras, vitrinas), and doubles as an invisiblewall in Jaramillo Levi’s stories. This device serves several purposes; itmay physically or metaphorically remove the character from reality, maydistance fantasy from reality, or may separate double lives as it does inCortázar’s “Axolotl” and “La isla a mediodía”, and in Hernández’s “Lashortensias”. 48 A shop window separates one (the observer) from theother (the performer) in “Maniquíes”: “Miró hacia adentro, a través delcristal, y a ratos todo parece azulado. […] No sospecharían que hay untestigo. […] ignorando mi presencia tras el cristal” (125). Perhaps thefact that he is looking through glass, (a través del cristal, tras el cristal)renders the mannequins as real as Horacio explained to his guests in“Las hortensias”.In “Primera reunión”, the department store’s glass façaderepresents a barrier beyond which there is an expectation of somethingbetter and that prospect comes in the form of human intimacy:La noche cayó sobre la vidriera del almacén ysólo entonces creyó prudente abandonar elsaludo. Su nuevo amigo estaría esperándolo alotro lado para que fuera más íntima aquellaprimera reunión. El gesto inicial lo hizo con lacabeza, y en seguida se estrelló de cuerpoentero contra el cristal (91). 4948 The distancing of fantasy from reality through the use of a window is particularlyevident in Cortazar’s “La isla a mediodia”: “No llevaba demasiado la cuenta de losdías […] todo un poco borroso, amablemente fácil y cordial y como reemplazando otracosa, llenando las horas antes o después del vuelo, y en el vuelo todo era tambiénborroso y fácil y estúpido hasta la hora de ir a inclinarse sobre la ventanilla de la cola,sentir el frío cristal como un límite del acuario”. 122.49 See Appendix C Vidrio, Cristall.136